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This Is the Most Insane, NSFW Reboot of 'Power Rangers' Ever (and It Stars James Van Der Beek!)

By John Boone 11:04 AM PST, February 24, 2015

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Dawson isn’t by the creek anymore.

Here’s the “dark and gritty” Power Rangers reboot you never knew you wanted until now: Director Joseph Kahn (the man behind Taylor Swift’s Blank Space music video, amongst others) created a 14-minute “fan film” starring James Van Der Beek and Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica as the Pink Power Range (a.k.a. the best Power Ranger).

“The dark and gritty reboot thing is such a cliché that the intention was not only to make it dark and gritty but make it even darker and grittier than you could possibly imagine,” Kahn told HitFix in an interview. “Hence the brains, the blood and the violence and the sex."

The short finds Kimberly (Sackhoff) being questioned by turncoat Red Ranger, Rocky (Van Der Beek) about the untimely -- and very, very violent -- deaths of the other Rangers. Kahn says the idea started, “Because I was bored, quite frankly.”

More than a tribute -- Kahn says he didn’t know anything about Rangers when he started -- it’s a commentary on the film industry’s love of rebooting: “All of Hollywood, they all keep toying around with this 'dark and gritty' concept, and they're all PG-13,” he explains. “Look at the gunshots. You have a guy going in there shooting a bunch of people and it's just like puffs of smoke.”

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He continues, “There's no repercussions to these gunshots, which to me is even more dangerous than when you actually show some blood. You're teaching kids that you can shoot a gun and there's no repercussions to it. It just looks like you fall down. So when I did the dark and gritty version of this, I mean, we go full out.”

And go full out he did. There’s point blank gun shots to the head, slit throats, and plenty of kung fu. Plus, drugs and nudity, for good measure. “Basically we made the version that Hollywood could never ever make,” he says. “If I had to watch the 'dark and gritty' reboot, then this is the way I would want it.”

Here’s the good news: Lionsgate, who owns the rights to Power Rangers, is actually making a reboot and have even set a release date for the movie: July 22, 2016. Here’s the bad news: If you like this version, it’s all you’re going to get.

"The irony here is that I wouldn't even want to make Power Rangers: The Movie for real,” Kahn claims. “If I had to make a Power Rangers movie, this is it. It's 14 minutes long and it's violent and this is what I have in me. If they offered me the 200 million version, the PG-13 version, I literally wouldn't do it. It's just not interesting to me."

Watch the SFW version of Power/Rangers now:

(Here’s another little bit more bad news: Remember last year when there were rumors going around that Katee was filming something...and it was maybe for Avengers: Age of Ultron? And she was maybe playing Captain Marvel? It wasn’t and she isn’t. It was for this.)

Now, celebrate all things Power Rangers with this kick ass #TBT to the original: